Why the Rat Crawled
by Ariana and Clara
Summary: How innocent was Peter Pettigrew before he was forced in the circle of Voldemort's followers? Join him as he tells of the pain and relives some childhood horrors.
1. The Beginning

© Ariana Veelagrace and Clara Maplewood, year 2000-2001

  
  
_Disclaimer: I own Alice Pettigrew, Esmerelda, Joella, and anybody else who isn't in the Harry Potter series.   
  
  
_

**Why The Rat Crawled**

_Chapter 1_

   
  
  


I was an okay guy for a while. A little bit of a geek, sure. Slightly annoying, absolutely. But evil? Nah, not at first.   
  
That came later.   
  
I was born to a really old wizarding family. Decent people, never the kind of people you'd expect to be mixed up with Voldemort. We lived right next door to the Longbottom family, me and my little sister Alice used to visit their house and play with Frank, who was a year older than Alice and a year younger than me. It was kind of depressing sometimes, because Alice and Frank always played "two" games, games for just two kids, and I always got left out. Alice never really liked me, and that was just fine with me, cos I didn't really like her, either. My mum was a formidable, muscular woman who always wore this ugly green dress with a red handbag. My dad was kind of short and heavy with a round face.  
  
To the other side of our house was a huge old brick relic that everyone simply called "The Hall." Alice and Frank were convinced that it was haunted, and dared each other back and forth to go explore it. I'm not so sure that it was the house that they were afraid of so much as its residents: The Snapes.   
  
The Snapes were as old a wizarding family as ours, but with not half as decent a history. Every Snape ever born was in Slytherin, with the exception of one cousin or uncle somewhere who nobody ever spoke of without blushing deeply. Mum and Dad always told us to stay away from the Hall, which was easy for me. The Snapes had a kid who was about my age...Severus, I think his name was. Yes, Severus Snape. If I had to pick one jerk in my life who messed it up, it's Severus Snape. But that's later.   
  
"Hey, Peter!" Frank poked me with a long stick. "Hey, I dare you to go ring the doorbell to the Hall!"   
  
I lifted one shoulder by way of a shrug. "Ahduhwanna."   
  
Alice giggled. "What was that, Peter? I didn't hear you."  
  
"I said, I duhwanna." I didn't like this kind of thing, even though both of them were younger than me and I could've easily kicked their butts if I had wanted to. They were ganging up on me, and it wasn't fair! Why couldn't they just leave me to my sandcastle and moat?   
  
"Chicken! Bawk bawk bawk!" Alice started flapping her arms like wings and making chicken noises at me. Of course, Frank joined in immediately, as he always did.   
  
I ground my teeth together and felt heat rise in my cheeks. "Stop it!"  They didn't stop! Completely disregarding my sandcastle, which was only half-built, I ran into my house and up the stairs to the strongest person I knew at the time...my teddy bear.   
  
  
Every day, Alice and Frank dared me within an inch of my life to enter the Hall. Every day, I wound up running up to my teddy bear, or my Uncle Algie. Uncle Algie was my mum's brother, and he was really strong. I knew that he'd keep me safe, even if he was angry at me.  Anyways, I was on his side, and nobody wanted to mess with him.  It was a good deal, in my eyes anyway.   
  
The days cycled on, never really changing much, except for the seasons.  In winter, they dared me while we were playing blocks. It all changed when I went to the local preschool, called "Tiny Hats." My mum bought me a little toy wand and a hat. It was the happiest day of my life!   
  
I walked in, holding my mum's big hand and staring down at my clumsy little feet, trying to negotiate the staircase. A smiling witch met us at the doorway of a room full of other kids my age. "Hello," she said. "What's your name?"   
  
"Peter," I mumbled, looking around at the four tables and the other kids, who were already forming little cliques. "What's yours?"  
  
"I'm Esmerelda, but you can call me Ezzie. That's Joella. If that's too hard, call her Jolly. You can put your broomstick in that little cubby, and go play with the other kids, okay?"   
  
"Okay." I reached up and hugged my mum. "Bye."   
  


"Bye, sweetie." She waved and walked back out the door to the outside world.   
  
I put my broomstick in the cubby and took one step forward before another kid pushed past, bursting in like he owned the place. From the smile on his face, you could have sworn he did. "Sorry! Hey, didn't catch your name. I'm Sirius, who are you?" He extended his hand, still grinning wisecrackingly.   
  
"Um...Peter." I reached out to shake his hand, but soon drew it back in shock. Sirius roared with laughter.   
  
"I can't believe you fell for that!" He held up his hand to show that he had a cheap Muggle buzzer concealed in it. "It's the oldest trick in the book!"   
  
I raised my shoulder in a shrug. "I've never really heard of it."   
  
Sirius smiled and nodded approvingly, throwing his arm around my shoulders in a very buddy-buddy way. "You're okay, Peter!"  
  
"Thanks, I think."  
  
"Hey, have you seen anyone here who's kinda tall, black hair, glasses, answers to the name of James Potter?"   
  
"Er...I just got here."  
  
"What a coincidence! Me, too!"   
  
"Yeah, I know." I gave a nervous chuckle. Preschool was going to be great, I knew already.  
  
Sirius suddenly jumped up on top of one of the tables and called out, "Hi, everyone! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Sirius Black, and I'm looking for a friend of mine. He's not nearly as adorable as me, but at least he doesn't deny it. His name's James, James Potter.  Anyone seen him?"   
  
All the kids giggled. One of them yelled up, "Siwius? You'we cwazy!"   
  
"Thanks!" Sirius bellowed. "Is James here?"   
  
A tall boy with black, messy hair and glasses that had been mended with masking tape stepped forward. "That's me! Hi, Sirius!"   
  
Sirius jumped down from the table. "Hihi! Oh, yeah, sorry about that little cheese thingy last week. I really didn't think it was going to explode, honest!"  
  
"Ah, that's okay. Who's he?" James jerked a finger towards Peter.   
  
"It's Peter Pettigrew. I bumped into him on my way in."   
  
"Neat. Hi, Peter, I'm James...oh, no! He's here!" James wasn't looking at me anymore, but over my shoulder. I turned around to see who he was looking at. Severus Snape had just entered.   
  
Severus walked over to us and didn't even say "excuse me" when he bumped into me. Sirius balled his little hands into fists and crossed his arms, shouting after Severus. "You have a big ugly nose!"  
  
Ya know, looking back at that first day of preschool when Sirius defended me like that, I wonder what I would have done if someone had come up to me and told me about my future. That I would follow Severus's bad advice, that I would frame Sirius for my own murder, and that I would all but kill James myself. I don't think I would've believed it.   
  
  
  


_To be continued......_


	2. The Prank

© Ariana Veelagrace and Clara Maplewood, year 2000-2001

_(A/N)- I'm sorry that it's taken so long to get this next chapter out, and NO, it isn't because of that bad review. Though hesitant to dignify that idiot with a response, I feel that the record should be set straight. They were at wizarding PRESCHOOL, not all living together.   
  
  
_

**Why The Rat Crawled__**

_Chapter 2_

   
Things got better for me after I met Sirius and James. I started going over to their houses to play, so Alice and Frank didn't have anyone to pick on anymore. Sometimes I wondered if they took up tormenting my teddy bear while I was away, but that really didn't matter.  
  
Sirius actually lived a couple of blocks away from me, so it wasn't a long walk from there to my house...or to the Hall.   
  
"Hey, Peter, bring your broomstick today, okay?" Sirius whispered to me as his mum came in the door to pick him up from preschool.   
  
"Okay!" I wondered what kind of games we were going to learn today. Hey, I told you I was a geek.  
  
As soon as I got home, I grabbed my toy broomstick and ran across the backyard to the next street. All I had to do was cross that street to get to Sirius's house. I arrived there out of breath and excited, holding up my broomstick proudly. "Hi, I brought my broom!"   
  
James and Sirius pinned my arms down on either side, concealing my broomstick. "Shhh!"  James hissed in my ear. "We gotta be quiet! Sirius's parents don't know what we're doin' today!"  
  
Immediately, I started to have my doubts. The grown-ups didn't know what we were doing?  Did that mean that we were doing something that was against the rules? I didn't want to do anything against the rules! "But-"  
  
"Bye, Mum!" Sirius interrupted, bellowing over his shoulder. "See you later!" And they pulled me out the door, running across the street and, to my vast surprise, across my backyard again.   
  
They fell apart in a heap as soon as we were concealed by a bush, laughing. I got to my feet and looked confusedly at them. "What are we doing?"   
  
"You'll see, Peter!" James gasped out between whoops of laughter. "Boy, Sirius, we really fooled them, didn't we?"   
  
"Sure did!" He grabbed my broomstick and ran around to the front of my house at top speed, closely followed by James. I was still completely in the dark as to the plan, so I tagged along as they ran down the street, panting with the effort. As soon as we reached the apparent destination, I knew we were in for a lot of trouble.   
  
"No!" I yelled, and turned around to walk away.   
  
"Come on! What, are you chicken?" Sirius caught me by the arm and started to pull me back towards the huge brick building. "It's just the Hall!"   
  
"Yeah, but there are ghosts!" I squeaked out fearfully. "Scary ghosts!"  
  
James put his hands on his hips. "Have you ever been inside?"   
  
Well, of course I hadn't! Alice and Frank had told me too many scary stories about what lurked inside for me to have ever summoned up enough courage to even peek in a window!  But what was I going to say? That I was too much of a scaredy-cat, too much of a chicken to have entered? "Yeah, sure, loads of times!"   
  
"Oh, good," Sirius said, picking up my broomstick again. "Then you won't mind going in again!"   
  
Isn't it just awful when you trap yourself in your own words? "I don't feel like it today!"  
  
"Okay." Sirius's voice now took on a spooky quality, and he even started to sound like Frank when he was telling one of those ghost stories. "Then you can stay out here and wait to meet that big ghost dog that the Snapes keep out here...you HAVE heard the story about the big ghost dog, haven't you? It's really a Grim...you know what a Grim is? A big black dog! Whenever you see it, it means you're going to DIE!" Of course, they couldn't have told me this without some effect. As Sirius had been talking, James had been sneaking up behind me. With that last, loud word, James had pushed me down onto the ground.   
  
"_Eek!" I scampered up to the ornate stone steps of the Hall, and a laughing Sirius handed me my broom back.   
  
"So, are you in or out?"   
  
My heart was pounding against my ribcage. For all I knew, there was a huge ghost dog prowling around this yard that was going to sneak up behind me and tell me that I was going to die when I saw it. Sirius and James were the only people who could probably even come close to protecting me from the ghost dog, so they seemed to be the people I had to hang around with..."I-I-I'm in."   
  
Now that I think about it, those two words - well, two and a half words, counting the stutter - are pretty much the reason for all my problems.   
  
"Good! So, here's what you have to do..."   
  
  
  
  
  
  
I was standing beside the Hall, feeling sandwiched between the big brick wall and the woods that made my street a dead end. About a half a meter above my head was a black metal window-ledge. The mirrored glass panels were outlined in sharp-looking, spear like gothic patterns that scared me almost more than the prospect of a ghost dog. I clutched my broomstick tighter and looked to my right, trying to see around the corner of the house.  Sirius and James stood down there, and James had promised to give me the signal when it was time for me to begin my part of the plan.   
  
My ears perked up as I heard a faint whistle coming from the corner of the Hall. I looked to my right again, to see James waving his hand for me to go ahead. I nodded and straddled the broomstick. It was time to prove to James and Sirius, and to Alice and Frank, that I wasn't a chicken! I pulled the handle up, and the broomstick rose sluggishly about eight centimeters above the ground. That wasn't enough! I pulled the handle further, urging it  
upwards. It rose another ten centimeters, and I could almost see over the top of the window-ledge. I gritted my teeth and forced the broomstick up a little more, and then I grabbed onto the edge of the black metal shelf, pulling myself and the broom to eye level with the incredibly clear glass.   
  
I grinned and looked back down. James was giving me the thumbs-up. He disappeared around the corner of the house, presumably to rendezvous with Sirius. My job was to create a distraction, but I didn't really know why. I figured that the only way to draw attention like this was to make noise and to do something funny. So, I tapped on the glass, yelled, and pulled faces. "Hey! Hey, look at this one!" I puffed up my cheeks and made fish lips, pressing my nose to the window. Then, I smacked my palm hard against the windowpane and fogged it up by breathing on it. "Can't you hear me in there? Hellooooo!"  
  
  
Apparently, someone did hear me.   
  
A tall, pale, lanky man dressed in a three-piece suit walked up to the window with a gait like a daddy long-legs, terrifying me out of my wits. He bent down and opened one of the windowpanes, sneering in my face. It was then, with the man's icy blue eyes boring into mine, that I realized that James and Sirius hadn't told me what their part of the plan was.   
  
  
  
_

**~*ANNOUNCEMENT*~   
  
****12/16/01: _This fic has not been abandoned. Clara and I have been extremely busy  
and our main priority has been, and will be for a while, _****Lily._  We haven't given up hope of   
finishing this however. Please be patient!!   
  
_****Have A Merry Christmas!!! :O)**


	3. The Consequences

© ArianaVeelagrace and Clara Maplewood, years 2000-2002

**A/N: _Just to let u know (in case you haven't already concluded this), this fic isn't exactly my main focus at the moment.  "Lily" is the first, foremost, and longest of this pair of opposite fics.  For now.  :O)_**

**Disclaimer:  _Lord Halsted, Lady Agatha, the Spider Guy (who is for now unnamed), and numerous characters to come are ours, as is the plot.  Those who will become the Marauders are JKR's.  _**

**Why The Rat Crawled__**

_Chapter 3_

"What, may I ask, has been at this window?" the man asked acidly.  "You look like you've been here.  Was there, perhaps, a rat scratching at it?"  

"A r-rat, sir?" I squeaked out.  Where were James and Sirius now?  Now it was just me and this scary spider guy, nobody between.  

"A rat.  A slimy, cowardly rat who doesn't have anything better to do with his time than to irritate us."  He spat every syllable out as though he wanted me to get the full impact of not only his words, but his bad breath and crooked teeth.  When I didn't say anything, he reached out with a long arm and literally swept me from the windowsill into the room.  

The floor wasn't even carpeted.  It was just bare, hard wood that reflected its own blackness throughout the room, adding to its gloomy feel. Everything was sharp or breakable or black, including the portraits of pointy-faced witches and wizards that glared down at me.  This one old witch in particular raised her spectacles to her close-set eyes and looked down her huge beak of a nose before addressing Mr. Spider.  "Jonathan…_what, pray tell, is __that?"  _

"Nothing for you to worry about, Lady Agatha.  I'll have this room empty soon.  Go back to your nap."  

While Lady Agatha reclined against her picture frame, a stuffy-looking old gentleman in the frame next to her cut his eyes across at Jonathan (who I still figured was better named Mr. Spider).  "Well, what are you waiting for?  Remove that bit of pudge from the Hall immediately, or I'll have my great-great grandson fire you straightaway!"  

"Yes, Lord Halsted.  I shall inform Master Snape of its presence, and he will most certainly order it extricated from the premises."  He turned on his heel and left.  

I just sort of sat there for a second, dizzy from the fall and Mr. Spider's last sentence.  Extricated from the premises?  Was that going to hurt?  Maybe it meant he was going to use one of the old, rusty torture devices that were hanging on the wall, on me!  My only thought was _get out of here.  _

So I got to my feet.  I wasn't the steadiest of guys, even when I hadn't smacked my head on a hard wooden floor, so my steps were pretty wobbly.  I was headed toward the window when I heard a sneering, snobby voice from across the room say, "What are _you doing __here?"  _

I knew it was Severus Snape.  Frankly, if I had known then what I know now, I would have shoved that slimeball down the stairs he'd just come up and told him to wash his smelly hair.  But instead, I just tripped over my own feet in surprise and ended up flat on my back on the floor again.  He watched me try to stand back up with a mile-wide smirk on his face.  "Let me guess.  You decided you'd break into 'the Hall' on a dare, is that it?" 

I nodded numbly.  

"What did you expect to find?  A pet manticore?" 

I shrugged. 

"I haven't got one.  Wish I did, though.  Got a Demiguise farm in India and some pretty ugly Fire Crabs.  Wanna see the burns I got on my arm from 'em last week?" 

I didn't have time to answer.  Mr. Spider skittered back into the room, bowed to Severus, and glared at me.  "Follow me," he snapped.  "Master Snape has demanded that you be shown _out."  I ducked the spittle flying from his ugly mouth and started out of the room.  _

"Hey, what's your name, anyway?" Severus yelled after me.  

"P-Peter," I stammered.  "Peter Pettigrew."  

I hadn't ever been in a house as big or angry-looking as the Snapes' mansion.  I was so relieved to be leaving that I don't even remember running out the door.  I just remember trudging home and moping on my front stoop.  Oh, yeah…and I remember that I didn't hear the front door of my house open behind me.  

"HEY!"  Sirius Black yelled, grabbing my shoulders quickly.  I leaped a foot into the air and spun around, only to see Sirius and James laughing at me.  

"How did you guys get into my house?" I demanded. 

"Practice," James said carelessly.  Before I could respond to that, he had started talking again.  "Thanks for the distraction,  by the way."  

"And has anyone ever told you your mother makes simply _spectacular lemonade?" Sirius had plopped down next to me on the stoop.  _

"Huh?"  I didn't know what 'spectacular' was.  Who did?  "Hey, what were you doing anyway?  I got caught by a guy that looked like a spider!  And he had really bad breath!"  

"All for the best, Peter," Sirius boomed, jumping to his feet and running off with James in tow.  "All for the best!"  

They never actually told me what they'd done while I was being terrified out of my wits.  My toy broomstick was still hovering outside the Hall.  For all I knew, my only two friends in the world had just pulled a prank on me – and a mean one, too.  It was the worst day of my seven-year-old life.  

That night, though, things got a little better.  As I was falling asleep, I suddenly heard a series of explosions and saw a few fireworks go up from the direction of the Hall.  I smiled to myself.  Maybe James and Sirius really were my friends.  

Things pretty much stayed like that for the next four years.  We'd meet in the morning, plot something, carry out the plan,  and do it all again the next day.  But I was the third wheel again, just as I had been with Alice and Frank.  James and Sirius had known each other since they were in diapers, as they constantly reminded each other.  Did they mean to make me feel left out?  I don't know.  Probably not.  Probably nobody ever did.  Even though I think I knew that, I blamed them for not being sensitive enough to _know that I felt left out.  Still…they were my only friends, and my only niche in the crazy world that was going on around us.  _

Sirius, James, and I got our letters of acceptance to Hogwarts on the same day.  Our mums took us shopping at Diagon Alley together.  We even shared the same compartment on the Hogwarts Express, goofing around and trying out magic stuff.  When the witch came by with a cart full of snacks, Sirius bought three bottles of pumpkin cider and led us all in a toast: "To Hogwarts – may we rule it by the time we're 12!"     

Even as I sipped my pumpkin cider, I wondered how many of us he meant when he said "we."


End file.
